Explore The Imagination is a collection of designs for Children’s interior products such as bedding and curtains, all the designs were inspired by mark makings created with toys and playful activities such as skipping and Hula-hooping. I have taken my colours from the ‘Colours of The Rainbow’ trend on WGSN as it provided a variety which are suitable for both girls and boys, I am very pleased with my colours in my final collection. They are bright, playful and fun which is exactly what sums up my designs.

Creating my collection consisted of 3 families, all of which had a different colour selection from the colour pallet and were based on different characteristics created in the mark makings. All of my designs are done digitally as while experimenting with screen printing techniques I was unable to achieve the standard of professional quality I desire for my collection. I experimented with several different screen printing techniques but couldn’t find one that was suitable for my customer or my products. I tired Puff as I thought it would appeal to children, however I soon realised that my fabrics would constantly be in contact with skin, clothing or other fabrics this causing a problem as Puff can not take many rubs before the binder releases from the fabric. There were similar reason as to why flock and foils were unsuitable for my products as well.

My brief stated that I would use stitch to add detail and enrich my design, however when experimenting with stitch it did not create the desired effect. My designs are bold and speak for themselves meaning the detail of the stitch wasn’t required as there was nothing to give detail too. I feel that the shapes and colours in my design were enough without the stitch, however I am still pleased I experimented with digital stitch and have become familiar with the programme and technology.

This project has been a challenge in many ways, but one that I confronted head on and by doing so have noticed the improvements in both my work and my confidence as a designer. While creating my mood boards I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Being very aware of the feedback from the previous module I wanted to excel myself. Previously creating my boards by hand I decided to spend time designing them on photoshop, this meant I would be able to display technical ability through the designs. However, on reflection I was not visually pleased with the final outcomes and after making several changes to help improve the boards I decided to compromise with myself.

To solve this problem I decided to continue with my same style of boards, as if I was creating them by hand, but use photoshop to give them a professional and precise finish. Once I had decided to do this, creating a board that I was satisfied with was easy. I learnt that I can’t change my style, as a designer I am an individual who needs to listen and respect the opinions of others to help me develop, but also know when to stick with what I enjoy and know I am confident achieving.

The Exhibition module has allowed me the time and tools to practice new skills and refine on old ones. I was able to use a space which the University provided to create my large and very messy mark makings. This was the underlining foundation to my whole collection as they were then drawn from and developed into designs. I have also taken the time to revisit Lino printing during this module which was part of my development process. Having these skills fresh in my mind and being updated gives me confidence when applying for jobs and I feel it is a good position to be in having the experience in such a wide range of abilities.

I feel this project has given me the independence to work freelance which is something I had never considered before. Looking at what I have achieved over the time of this module makes me realise my own ability. It reminds me of how much I have progressed over the last 9 months alone, which gives me encouragement to keep learning and developing my skills whilst still doing what I enjoy and gaining experience.

While designing I wanted there to be a large range of choice rather then keeping everything to matching coordinates. I also decided that I didn’t want to over complicate any of my designs because they are for children I thought it was best to focus on the shapes and colours. I wanted to create a fun and exciting environment for children to feel energetic and creative in. Using CAD’s has really helped to bring the designs to life and see how the coordinates and colour ways work together. Without them I would not have the reassurance that all the design work together as a collection. As I am providing bedding products there are many combinations that can work together, I have tried to show examples of the best ones using each size of the duvet cover as an example and using the second pillow to coordinate with the first.

Overall I am pleased with my collection of work, I have really pushed myself with this project to be creative and think of alternative ways to designs. I enjoyed working with the mark makings, developing my design ideas and transferring them onto fabrics. I have learnt many skills along the way from creating press packs and putting up my exhibition. Allowing for ideas to develop and being open to opinion is something that I have learnt recently. I have learnt to keep pushing my ideas further to create something better then what I had taken my inspiration from or my original idea.

Explore The Imagination is a collection of designs for Children’s interior products such as bedding and curtains, all the designs were inspired by mark makings created with toys and playful activities such as skipping and Hula-hooping. I have taken my colours from the ‘Colours of The Rainbow’ trend on WGSN as it provided a variety which are suitable for both girls and boys, I am very pleased with my colours in my final collection. They are bright, playful and fun which is exactly what sums up my designs.

Creating my collection consisted of 3 families, all of which had a different colour selection from the colour pallet and were based on different characteristics created in the mark makings. All of my designs are done digitally as while experimenting with screen printing techniques I was unable to achieve the standard of professional quality I desire for my collection. I experimented with several different screen printing techniques but couldn’t find one that was suitable for my customer or my products. I tired Puff as I thought it would appeal to children, however I soon realised that my fabrics would constantly be in contact with skin, clothing or other fabrics this causing a problem as Puff can not take many rubs before the binder releases from the fabric. There were similar reason as to why flock and foils were unsuitable for my products as well.

My brief stated that I would use stitch to add detail and enrich my design, however when experimenting with stitch it did not create the desired effect. My designs are bold and speak for themselves meaning the detail of the stitch wasn’t required as there was nothing to give detail too. I feel that the shapes and colours in my design were enough without the stitch, however I am still pleased I experimented with digital stitch and have become familiar with the programme and technology.

This project has been a challenge in many ways, but one that I confronted head on and by doing so have noticed the improvements in both my work and my confidence as a designer. While creating my mood boards I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Being very aware of the feedback from the previous module I wanted to excel myself. Previously creating my boards by hand I decided to spend time designing them on photoshop, this meant I would be able to display technical ability through the designs. However, on reflection I was not visually pleased with the final outcomes and after making several changes to help improve the boards I decided to compromise with myself.

To solve this problem I decided to continue with my same style of boards, as if I was creating them by hand, but use photoshop to give them a professional and precise finish. Once I had decided to do this, creating a board that I was satisfied with was easy. I learnt that I can’t change my style, as a designer I am an individual who needs to listen and respect the opinions of others to help me develop, but also know when to stick with what I enjoy and know I am confident achieving.

The Exhibition module has allowed me the time and tools to practice new skills and refine on old ones. I was able to use a space which the University provided to create my large and very messy mark makings. This was the underlining foundation to my whole collection as they were then drawn from and developed into designs. I have also taken the time to revisit Lino printing during this module which was part of my development process. Having these skills fresh in my mind and being updated gives me confidence when applying for jobs and I feel it is a good position to be in having the experience in such a wide range of abilities.

I feel this project has given me the independence to work freelance which is something I had never considered before. Looking at what I have achieved over the time of this module makes me realise my own ability. It reminds me of how much I have progressed over the last 9 months alone, which gives me encouragement to keep learning and developing my skills whilst still doing what I enjoy and gaining experience.

While designing I wanted there to be a large range of choice rather then keeping everything to matching coordinates. I also decided that I didn’t want to over complicate any of my designs because they are for children I thought it was best to focus on the shapes and colours. I wanted to create a fun and exciting environment for children to feel energetic and creative in. Using CAD’s has really helped to bring the designs to life and see how the coordinates and colour ways work together. Without them I would not have the reassurance that all the design work together as a collection. As I am providing bedding products there are many combinations that can work together, I have tried to show examples of the best ones using each size of the duvet cover as an example and using the second pillow to coordinate with the first.

Overall I am pleased with my collection of work, I have really pushed myself with this project to be creative and think of alternative ways to designs. I enjoyed working with the mark makings, developing my design ideas and transferring them onto fabrics. I have learnt many skills along the way from creating press packs and putting up my exhibition. Allowing for ideas to develop and being open to opinion is something that I have learnt recently. I have learnt to keep pushing my ideas further to create something better then what I had taken my inspiration from or my original idea.

For me creating these CAD’s have been the moment that my designs have come to life. Not all of the CAD’s but most of them look so realistic with the shadows and the creases that appear in the fabric. As a designer it is refreshing and exciting being able to see how the designs would work on products, for me the CAD’s appear much better then I had been imagining.

Being able to see how the co-ordinates work together and how they look on the products they were specifically designed for gives reassurance that as a designer something is going right. I am please with the way in which my CAD’s have turned out. Some work better then other, naturally. I wanted to show variating in the co-ordinates and place as many of my designs as possible in a CAD.

After doing the CAD’s there have been a few possible edits to my designs that could happen. Mainly just changing colours, or adding an alternative colour way, for example a design that would fit perfectly but the background colour does not work with the colours in the rest of that collection. However this is things that can be added when they are needed. When designing I tried to keep the a limited colour pallet, however felt that there needed to be some variation with the colours that are used, mainly a variation in the background colour used. On reflection the CAD’s demonstrate how some of the design that co-ordinate together would work better on the same colour. This way they can be used as different side of a duvet cover, or even a pillow and a cover and match better with the colours.

Over the past week I have spent my time in the print studio experimenting with colours and fabrics. Keeping a diary of the formulations used to create the colours I have been able to match the pigment with the colours on my colour pallet. Experimenting with the colour, the fabric and the amount of pulls on the screen I managed to collect and rather extensive file of information. The colours appeared slightly different on the different fabrics due to the transparency of them, but this is something that is unpreventable. Having this information written down means I can recreate the exact same colours at any time for this collection.

After achieving the correct colours and seeing how well they take to the fabric, I decided to experiment with different techniques such as Puff and Foils. I decided to use these techniques as I felt they are child appropriate. The puff is raised and textured making it appealing to the child’s senses, while the foil is shinny and generally attractive.

However, in reflection on these samples I am concerned with the suitability of the techniques on fabric that is used for products such as bedding and soft furnishing. This is because once the puff has been steamed it is not very for or comfortable for skin contact. Also when the images get rubbed the puff starts to fall away making a distorted image which would not be suitable for children who spend a lot of time rolling around and playing a lot of the time. However the foils could still be used and would be very effective.

Today I made the trek down to London to see the Chelsea Harbour Design Show. This is exactly the kind of thing that gets me excited. Last year I visited while I was doing work experience with an interior design company and gained so much information on the industry.

This year it was really nice to walk around and feel familiar with some of the companies and recognise their designs. Feeling much more confident to speak to the employers, ask questions and understand how the process works of ordering samples. Last year I was like a kid in a candy shop, I ordered samples in every design that caught my eye. However over the last year I have realised that there is very little use of these samples and that after admiring them for a few days they have been untouched. Therefore this year I carefully selected designs that I felt I could relate to my project, being more refined. The day felt much more relaxed from the last year as I knew what to expect more and was able to take more time.

I guess this is something that I will notice in all aspect of my professional career. The more times I do something, whether that be going to a design show, visiting a clients home or creating a collection of work, each time I will become more familiar and confident with what I do. It also gives confidence to try new things.

The website for Chelsea Harbour Design Week, for more information and imagery: http://www.dcch.co.uk

Today we were lucky enough to meet the famous textile embroider Tilleke Schwarz, she gave her time to talk through her work and explain where she find inspiration and the techniques she uses to create her pieces.

I found her so refreshing, she reminded me that you can create work for simples reasons like that fact that it just makes you smile, or it has a memory linked to it that you are fond of. For example, Tilleke Schwarz repeatedly uses cats in her work because she is so fond of them. She once used the information on a fast food receipt in her work because it was so detailed, and this humoured her.

Being a student sometimes it is easy to get bogged down with having to explain you work and give reasons as to why you have decided to do something. Understandable this is all part of the curriculum that we are all working too and in essential. But Tilleke Schwarz reminded me that I am able to create work based on things that I enjoy, and this will be the luxury for graduating. Being able to set up by myself and create designs that I find visually pleasing, while hopefully attracting people with the same thoughts.

After creating mark makings on a large scale I ended up with lots of interesting shapes and patterns, however this was all merged onto paper with also a lot of mess and splat marks. It was time to become more refined with my drawings.

I took small intricate parts of my work and used them in various ways to start creating drawings that would then inspire my patterns and designs. As expected with mark making there is little control over the precision and perfection of what is produced. It really is a matter of how the objects make contact with the paper. Therefore parts were to distorted to use, but it was more the shapes that were created that interested me. I wanted to see how my imagination would interoperate the shapes and how creative I could be with it.

For example, I used the bottom of a balloon to create rounded shapes, however the circles broke in places and started to look more like buttons with two little dots in the middle. When using the shapes created from the Hula hoop there was a more organic appearance to the drawings.

I have found it interesting hearing feedback from classmates who have different interpretations for my drawings. Experimenting with my drawings and creating my first design based on marks of a bouncy ball, I personally saw the design to be quite artistic. Seeing each individual shape as a splatter of paint. While others of my friends saw colourful flowers. I think a lot is to do with the use of colour, so I must be careful and take great consideration with my use of colours.